Judge Dredd, Game Boy

Judge Dredd on the Game Boy is a port of the Super Nintendo platform game, which is based on the 1995 Judge Dredd film starring Sylvester Stallone. It was developed by Probe Software and published by Acclaim the same year as the film’s release.

Considering the Game Boy‘s limitations this is not a bad conversion of the original, in spite of it lacking colour. The use of blacks, whites, and grey tones is good and the graphics are quite atmospheric. The Judge Dredd sprite is well animated and stands out in darker tones from the lighter backdrops. The scrolling levels are smooth and large. There is some sprite flicker and the occasional bit of slowdown, but it doesn’t ruin the game. In fact: Judge Dredd is a playable and enjoyable game on the Game Boy.

The layout of the levels is slightly different to the original, but the gameplay and structure of the game is basically the same as the SNES original.

Dredd can shoot, jump, duck, crawl, and look up to see more of what’s above him, and he’ll also start running after three seconds of walking in one direction. He can jump directly onto ladders, which is good, and pressing Select will cycle through his weapons. When close to hostiles Dredd will automatically switch to punches and kicks, rather than using his gun (as long as he’s not crouching – if crouched Dredd will only shoot his gun), which is another useful feature.

Positioning yourself above a ladder, to climb down, can be tricky, and the isometric staircases look a bit weird, but otherwise Judge Dredd plays well enough and I think the developers did a good job of porting it to the Game Boy.